The new Labour government has been told by a prominent industry figure that talk is cheap – but where’s the money to supports its rental reforms.

Neil Cobbold, commercial director of Reapit | PayProp, says:“The Labour government will have to commit the necessary funding to deliver on housebuilding pledges, energy efficiency retrofits and private rented sector (PRS) reform. While the party has spent the last few days in Liverpool focused on broad-stroke missions, the industry wants to see actual funding behind these reforms to ensure they are viable.”

In particular, he points out that Matthew Pennycook, the housing ministers spearheading rental reform, was “ever-present” around party fringe meetings.

Cobbold comments: “When I spoke to him, he acknowledged some of the finer details were still under scrutiny to avoid any unintended consequences and said he would be open to constructive comments. But he was firm that the measures within the Renters Rights Bill – including the move to open-ended tenancies, the abolition of Section 21, the right to request pets in homes, and extending the Decent Homes Standard and Awaab’s Law to the PRS – would all become law.”

But Cobbold says that with landlords nervous about what these changes could mean for them – especially when it comes to recovering their property – the government should move to reassure them funding will be allocated to equip the courts to hear eviction cases quickly and efficiently.

And on energy efficiency demands for the private rental sector, Cobbold also wants evidence of funding.

“Reapit data suggests that over 51% of current private rental sector stock will need some form of retrofitting to hit this target, at a cost of £24 billion. But the current labour shortage in the construction industry will also impact any retrofitting programme, meaning the government will have to prioritise addressing it.

“During the conference, support was announced for landlords housing low-income households (that earn less than £36,000 a year). The Warm Homes Local Grant allows some landlords to receive up to £30,000 in grants to spend on improving the energy performance of their rental property and cleaner heat measures such as heat pumps and high retention storage heaters.

“While there was no wider announcement of support for other landlords, The Times reported a proposed cost cap of £10,000 meaning there may be a limit to what most landlords need to invest in green measures to keep their property in the PRS.”

And he concludes: “We can all agree that we need more homes, that renters should have a decent place to live, and that we need to decarbonise the housing sector, but there’s been precious little money committed to the many ambitious plans outlined over the last few days. I’m afraid without proper funding, the public would be disappointed with the results.”